About MH combination of my new SPS tank

[7thheaven]

Hi~ all
I wanna hear your opinion about my new tank lighting system.
I am considering only metal halide combination.
I go to work in daytime,and came back about 7 PM. so I decide when I am
not home, use 65K or 10K (not decided yet) and when I am back home,
use 14K AC or pheonix bulb. From using 65K or 10K, I expect the growth of
coral and From 14K, I expect the good coloration and looking good to my eyes (cause 65K looks like yellow to my eyes).
So I am thinking Lumenarc 1ea and PFO DE pendant. I have PFOs and will
buy Lumenarc.
Here is my future tank. upper view(?)

PFOs are front side and lumenarc is back side. My tank Spec will be 100cm x 100cm x 50cm(LxWxH)
The lengh may be a little longer 110cm

The time schedule is...
65K ->8hours (11AM~7PM)
2ea 14K -> 4~5hours (7PM~11PM,65K off)

How about your Opinion?
One lumenarc is enough? or add one? like this


Thanks in advance~

[Orion76]

I would get a combination of lights that look good to you and run all bulbs for the full photoperiod, no need to withhold PAR from your corals

Personally I like the look of 10,000 K combined with 20,000 K.

[7thheaven]

Thanks Orion76
Do you think one Lumenarc is enough?

[Orion76]

I am not familiar with the lumenarcs, but if you mean is one single 10kK bulb enough, well that's a very subjective question

More light is usually better IF you don't mind the electricity bill.

[nyfireman3097]

yeah i would go with thte 2 lums
Nick

[7thheaven]

Thanks~
Choosing MH is so hard to me cause there are so many MH in the world... :devil2:

I did not choose perfectly.maybe forever.. :afro:

But I would like to place the red,pink,yellow,orange corals to under the
10K (or 65K), and purple,blue,green coralas to under the 14K (or 20K)
Cause I think I can see the original color of corals.. I heard Corals have
own colors and look different the light color.. I am not sure it is correct..

Some people say 14K is better than 20K Some say it is not true, 65K,10K is
the same thing....



Subjective issues...

[nyfireman3097]

yeah 20k colors are false colors thats y people use it there more color it looks like i like 10k for growth and if ur corals are healthy and good water they will have aweest colors
Nick

[Orion76]

If you get only one color of bulb then 14kK looks best to me, however if you want a 10kK bulb then it may look too yellow combined with a 14kK bulb in which case it will look better combined with a 20kK bulb (to me anyway).

With the wide dispersion of most MH reflectors special coral placement strategies based on coral color vs. bulb color temp will not provide much benefit as the light color will be pretty uniform throughout the tank anyway. If you'd place the reflectors in a way where the light is not mixed you defeat the purpose of mixing bulbs, unless you like a yellow side and a blue side on your tank.

Saying that one color temperature is "better" than another color temperature is just silly but a lower color temperature should give you better growth and possibly better pigmentation and a higher color temperature will make the tank look aesthetically better to most and provides the illusion of your corals being more colorful than they really are.

[7thheaven]

Thanks Orion76~

If you'd place the reflectors in a way where the light is not mixed you defeat the purpose of mixing bulbs, unless you like a yellow side and a blue side on your tank.

That is my worry. Now I use 10K and 14K bulb together with PFO mini pendant.
and result is not bad. but Lumenarc and PFO...Well I do not know whether they are mixed well

If Possible, I wanna use many types of bulbs (10K/14K/20K/65K) in my cube tank..
so I am thinking the Icecap Spot pendant also.
It is so sweet. but it has just 70w and 150w version,not 250watter, so
I do not know they have enough PAR level...

[Orion76]

Mixing = making sure the dispersion areas of the two reflectors overlap through out most of the tank, ie. two reflectors with two different temp colors putting their light on the same area rather than two separate areas. I'm not familiar with either Lumenarc or PFO fixtures but if the Lumenarc is 50cm x 50cm then it may not be the right reflector for what you are trying to achieve. Especially in your second drawing a lot of light would shine outside of the tank so in this case a very efficient reflector becomes an inefficient one with light falling outside of the tank.

Those spotlights are cool In Japan they use those a lot. I think what they typically do is get one or two large MH bulbs in the center of the tank with a reflector with a large dispersion area and put small spots around the edge of the tank to highlite individual corals.

The 150 watters may provide more PAR than you'd expect because the light is focussed on a smaller area. Haven't seen any tests to confirm that though.

[7thheaven]

Thanks Orion76
Yeah~ Lumenarc is so big to make bulb combination if I am not using only 14K bulb.
I will consider spotlight..
There are two types of bulb in Icecap spotlight. 65K and 20K.
I think 150w 20K bulb make a little PAR value...
I am not sure it is OK and can make better combination...

[7thheaven]

How about 400watt MH?
Not need to use it in my low Depth tank?
overkill?

[keigo]

i'm running 2 x 250 BLV 10kk and 1 x 150W iwasaki 6.5kk for my centre light..

and tell you want if you dont mind the yellowish lighting... which I find ok.. since when u look at anything under the sun, the lighting is also yellowish...

and my future bulb I'm intending to switch everything to 6.5kk iwasaki bulb with no supplement.

for thos 14kkk or 20kk bulb.. they are false coloring which only for your eye only.. but no for the coral, cause the PAR is low, range of light given out is little and you will have a hard time see brown out sps to get color up and small sps to grow to become big sps...

[7thheaven]

for thos 14kkk or 20kk bulb.. they are false coloring which only for your eye only.. but no for the coral, cause the PAR is low, range of light given out is little and you will have a hard time see brown out sps to get color up and small sps to grow to become big sps...

Yeah~ you are correct.
but I think Most reefer, including me, have this hobby not only growth but also looking
good to their eyes..
That is why people love the corals color of 20K and 14K bulb..

In my case, Only 65K is too yellow. Only 10K is also.

so and that is why I wanna found the perfect combination for Both
Good coloration and growth of corals and Happiness of my eyes..

Am I so greedy...right?

[keigo]

Yeah~ you are correct.
but I think Most reefer, including me, have this hobby not only growth but also looking
good to their eyes..
That is why people love the corals color of 20K and 14K bulb..

In my case, Only 65K is too yellow. Only 10K is also.

so and that is why I wanna found the perfect combination for Both
Good coloration and growth of corals and Happiness of my eyes..

Am I so greedy...right?

lolz it's normal... anyway I have one reefer who do it this way..as his is a 5ft length by 3ft width..
he setup 4 MH with 2 MH 6.5kk shining at the back of the tank with all sps in there.
And 2 MH 20kk at the front shining at nothing or might reach some sps and some lps... just for your eye